1:^7 



early suniiner. The low cost ol" Ihe steers a I llu' lime 

 they went into the feed lot, 4.0") cents per pound, 

 was due to the fact that they were pureliased in thin 

 conchlion in the si)rino and i^razed (hiring; the summer. 

 T!u' cheap gains made during the summer consider- 

 ahly rechiecd the cost i)cr pound of the steers at the 

 ])(.'ginnini> of the feeding period. 



it is usually considered safe to feed steers when a 

 two-cent margin is ])ossi])le on them. Tliat is, the 

 selling price of the steer should he at least two cents 

 per jiound higher than the cost price. Usually the 

 gains that are made in the feed lot, with feeds at 

 the present i)rices, will cost as much as the pounds 

 gained will sell for. The profit to the feeder comes 

 laigely from the increased value on the original \yeight 

 •of the steer, due to the gains the steer puts on in the 

 feeding operation. 



The "steers had the run of the stalk fields after the 

 permanent pastures hegan to fail. They were in the 

 stalk fields during the entire month of Novemher. 

 They were all dehorned the first of Novemher and 

 were entirely healed hy the time the experiment 

 started. 



The forty steers used in this experiment, and sixty 

 •others, were given a preliminary feed of sixteen days 

 while they had the run of the stalk fields. The pre- 

 liminary feeding was done to accustom them to 

 feeding and handling and to secure a uniform fill. 

 Each steer received two and one-half i)ounds of shell- 

 ed corn, one-half pound of cottonseed meal and twelve 

 ])ounds of silage daily for the sixteen day period. On 

 the l(Sth day of Decend^er, 1915, the steers were weigh- 

 ed, and divided into lots for the test, and each steer 

 tagged with a metal ear tag so that individual records 

 could he kept. The steers were weighed on three con- 

 secutive days at the heginning of the experiment and 

 the average of the three weights was used as the 

 initial weight. Fourteen days later they were weigh- 

 ed hy lots, and on the twenty-eighth day individual 

 weights were taken, this procedure heing repeated 

 until the end of the test. The experiment continued 

 for ninety-seven days. Hence the steers were fed for 

 -one hundred and thirteen days, including the prelimi- 

 nary period. 



Daily Rations. 



The amount of roughage was regulated hy the appe- 



